The Prime Minister will again answer questions from MPs in Parliament, but with a limited number of times that parties can split their speaking time, a maximum of seven times for the SDP and PS.
In accordance with the text agreed between PS and PSD for the revision of the Regulation, to which Lusa had access, there will also be some periods during which the two-week debate will not take place: in the month of the presentation of the government program (once to the legislature), in the month of debate of the State of the Nation (usually in July), during the period in which the draft law on the state budget takes place (between mid-October and the end of November), and within two weeks after the discussion of a vote of confidence or a vote of no confidence.
The return of the two-week debate with the Prime Minister is a key change that has led to a new revision of the Standing Orders of the Assembly of the Republic, initiated two years after PS and PSD agreed to end the two-week debate with the current model. simply oblige the prime minister to appear every two months in plenary meetings to discuss general policy.
According to the text, which will be discussed in the working group on the revision of the Rules, with a view to entering into force in September, the bi-weekly debate format will return on a model similar to that which existed before July 2020. but with a change in how the parties can allocate their global time for speeches and rebuttals, which until now has been freely disposed of.
“Parliamentary groups that have ten or more minutes for global debate may divide their time into seven statements,” reads the text in a provision that will apply to PS and PSD in the current legislature’s grid.
Other parliamentary groups that have less than ten minutes of total debate time will be able to divide their time into five speeches.
“The only MPs representing the party may divide their time into two speeches,” the text says.
Each intervention is immediately followed by a response from the Prime Minister, who has the same amount of time to respond.
As before 2020, the debates with the prime minister will take place in two alternating formats, one initiated by the head of government and the other by parties, will return to one round (instead of the current two) and will range from 109 to 99 minutes. (against the current 180).
“In the first case, the debates are opened with an initial speech by the prime minister lasting no more than ten minutes, followed by the stage of questioning the deputies, deployed in one turn; in the second case, the debate begins with the phase of the questions of the deputies developed in one turn,” the text says.
At the start of the current legislature, all benches proposed changes to the current debate model, which, with the exception of PS and PCP, included the return of bi-weekly general policy discussions with the prime minister, which ended in 2020 by agreement between the PS. and PSD (then led by Rui Rio).
In its original proposal, the PS, which has an absolute majority in Parliament, proposed to hold monthly debates with the Prime Minister (every two weeks with another member of the government) and with a constant use of time for each party, without retorts.
However, in late December, and in the face of head-on opposition from the SDP, the Socialists had already admitted that they had reformulated their proposal to try to achieve the consensus now reached with the Social Democrats.
The working group on the revision of the Rules of Procedure will meet on Thursday to begin preliminary discussions and vote on the new text.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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